So the iMac that I use for DAW (among other things) is a mid 2010 2.93ghz i7/16GB/1TB HD. I use a TC Desktop Konnekt 6 firewire interface. I like that the feature set is about right for me (2 inputs, decent mic pres, desktop form factor). Also getting the recording digital I/O off the USB buss seemed to cut way down on problems while recording. I'd rate the converter quality somewhere in the middle. Not quite as good as Apogee but quite a bit better than Scarlett and Audiobox quality.

I'd like to upgrade my iMac 27 to a retina with 32GB RAM. Currently, it comes with a Thunderbolt port and a firewire adapter cable is available. By all accounts that seems to work as advertised.

But today I hear of new iMac models being introduced later in the year. By all accounts these will strictly be USB-C devices.

So the question for me is, do I upgrade now so that I can keep my audio interface, or wait, bite the bullet and upgrade both my computer and my audio interface later in the year?

I'm definitely a low end bottom feeder sort of guy. I just need a setup good enough to record some decent demos, and listen to hi-res audio. I do really appreciate good converters. The Apogee Duet seems like a likely solution, I just hate the whole cable mess that it entails. But I do love the quality of the converters. Also, I'm not a big plugin guy, so the Apollo stuff seems like overkill to me.